


We Two Boys

by rain_sleet_snow



Category: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-07
Updated: 2015-01-07
Packaged: 2018-03-06 14:31:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3137810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laurence and Granby, engaged in public works.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Two Boys

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written some years ago, and has almost certainly been Jossed since writing.
> 
> We two boys together clinging,  
> One the other never leaving,  
> Up and down the roads going, North and South excursions making  
> -Walt Whitman, We Two Boys Together Clinging

“I hope,” Laurence says to Granby one day, while standing on Temeraire’s shoulder and orchestrating the foundation-laying of a new public building in an otherwise ramshackle Australian town, “I have never given you cause to regret accepting my offer of a commission, even considering the monumental and perhaps regrettable ways in which it has changed your life.”

“Wha-at?” Granby bellows from where he is instructing a surveyor who is attempting to mark out a new main street for the town.

Laurence repeats his comment at top volume. This attracts Temeraire’s attention, and fortunately distracts him from his soliloquy on the regrettable nature of the new town hall’s draconic accommodations, but still does not reach Granby.

“Never mind,” Laurence says wearily, climbs down and goes to inform the foreman that one of his workers is certainly either inebriated or suffering from heatstroke, and – whichever is the case – some kind of action should be taken. It takes him slightly longer than it used to; they have been here some thirty years, and Laurence... well, there is no hiding it. He is old.

He pauses on the way down, though not because he is tired: Tharkay and his working party have just finished laying out the white stones that spell the new town’s name from the air, and it looks well. VICTORIATOWN: a new name for a new town, for a new monarch who is even now embarked on a tour of her colonial possessions. 

Queen Victoria. A woman – a lady, Laurence corrects himself – on the throne. Laurence shakes his head pensively as he approaches the foreman. So much has changed, since he, Granby and Tharkay left. Everything has changed. Still, Temeraire’s insatiable curiosity, Tharkay’s inscrutability, Iskierka’s temper, and – most of all – Granby’s loyalty: these things remain constant. 

Granby grins at him and makes a gesture behind the foreman’s back, which is rude but... not entirely unjustified. Laurence hides a smile, and saves his question for later. 

It is not as if (much though Laurence cannot admit it to himself) he does not know the answer.


End file.
